Nuno Espirito Santo and Nottingham Forest’s ascent up the league this season has been made the more delightful by the numerous questions around their abilities.
Nobody would have anticipated this time last year that Forest would continue to hold their place in the Premier League table in the race for European football after their 7-0 thumping of Brighton on Saturday.
| Position | Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | For | Against | Diff | Points |
| 1 |  Liverpool |
23 | 17 | 5 | 1 | 56 | 21 | 35 | 56 |
| 2 |  Arsenal |
24 | 14 | 8 | 2 | 49 | 22 | 27 | 50 |
| 3 |  Nottingham Forest |
24 | 14 | 5 | 5 | 40 | 27 | 13 | 47 |
| 4 |  Chelsea |
24 | 12 | 7 | 5 | 47 | 31 | 16 | 43 |
| 5 |  Manchester City |
24 | 12 | 5 | 7 | 48 | 35 | 13 | 41 |
Stuart Pearce, who views Forest’s hiring of Espirito Santo as a “masterstroke,” acknowledges that the Portuguese manager is largely responsible for the six-point margin that has developed to provide Forest some safety in the Champions League spots.
In the football world, well regarded commentators like Gary Lineker anticipated that Forest would be demoted, despite Gael Clichy’s belief that Espirito Santo would flourish there.
Many people outside of the City Ground, like Ashley Cole, who had strong feelings after watching Forest earlier in the season, will continue to be surprised that it hasn’t turned out that way.
Early in this season, Ashley Cole expressed reservations about Nottingham Forest.
After evaluating Espirito Santo’s team’s performance against Brighton in September, the former England left-back acknowledged that he wasn’t sure about them on the Could It Be Magic podcast alongside Forest great Pearce and Joe Cole.
“If I’m being brutally honest, I was a little direct in that first game and the midfielders couldn’t catch up quickly enough,” Cole remarked after seeing Forest play Brighton.
